محمود عبدالعزيز: الأيقونة
Unfettered spirit of Sudanese singer lives on in Bashir protests
Six years after his death, youth idol Mahmoud Abdelaziz remains an influential symbol of a very different Sudan
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Zeinab Mohammed Salih in Khartoum and Peter Beaumont
Thu 7 Feb 2019 00.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 7 Feb 2019 00.04 EST
When Mahmoud Abdelaziz, one of Sudan’s most popular singers, died in Amman in January 2013, his fans mobbed the runway of Khartoum airport as his body was flown home, forcing the cancellation of flights.
Others poured out on to the city’s streets, forming one of the biggest crowds witnessed in Sudan’s recent history.
Nicknamed “Elhoot”, the singer made music that merged African traditions with western pop. He had become a potent symbol of a different Sudan: less religiously conservative, more secular and outward-looking. He was known as Sudan’s “idol of the youth”, and now those fans are taking to the streets again.
They have emerged at the forefront of the recent protestsagainst the regime of president Omar al-Bashir demanding that he stand down.
The impetus for the involvement of Elhoot’s still loyal fans is the cultural and charitable organisation the singer set up before his death. Known as the “Moons of the Countryside”, its members have included some who were arrested and killed in the government’s crackdown.
One of those killed at a protest in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city, was 25-year-old Salih Salih. Bearing pictures of the late singer, he had arrived at the gathering with two younger brothers after the group urged supporters to demonstrate instead of celebrating the anniversary of Abdelaziz’s death.
 Demonstrators flee as teargas is fired by riot police during an anti-government protest in Omdurman in January. Photograph: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters
“We’re not political at all. We even don’t understand politics,” his brother Mohanad Salih told al-Nilan website – underlining how, in a country gripped by spiralling inflation and economic hardship, the protest movement against Bashir has expanded beyond opposition groupings, hardening into more popular discontent.
His sister, Jihan Salih, said: “When my father arrived at the hospital [to fetch Salih’s body], he chanted and everyone else chanted with him, so they tear-gassed us and fired live ammunition outside the hospital.”
Despite the threat of violence and arrest, the group has said it will continue to participate in the protests, making extensive use of the secure Telegram messaging app to avoid surveillance by a government that has blocked many of the country’s social media sites.
If many supporters of Moons of the Countryside are not overtly political, the significance of Abdelaziz as a continuing icon – not least in the protests – is more nuanced, touching a younger generation in Sudan that is chafing at social restrictions.
 President Omar al-Bashir, left, dances with Mahmoud Abdelaziz in Khartoum in April 2012. Photograph: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images
Although the regime – including Bashir, who danced on stage with Abdelaziz – attempted to co-opt the singer because of his popularity, his relationship with the authorities in Khartoum was fraught. He was frequently arrested and flogged publicly for drinking alcohol